III Year Role of NGOs IN Eliminating Child Labour in

Role of NGOs in child labour elimination in India

India’s poverty problem sees children 'caught in the crossfire' - they are forced into child labour so that they can serve as assets to the family. Despite a 2006 amendment to the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act that ambitiously aims to cover lakhs of child labourers below the age of 14, poverty has still ensnared India's children into child labour. This has made the role of non- governmental organisations and civil society even more important.

Lakhs of children in India are working in professions like beedi-rolling, brick kilns, carpet weaving, commercial sexual exploitation, construction, fireworks and matches factories, hotels, hybrid cottonseed production, leather, mines, quarries, silk, synthetic gems, etc. This also leads to child trafficking, something which gets silent approval when there is demand from retail, hospitality, and menial work sectors.

Encouraging commercial enterprises to not use child labour: NGOs are constantly sensitising trade organisations to end this social evil, and locals have been made vigilant to report instances of child labour at businesses. Thousands of children are still toiling for 14-16 hours a day, in labour intensive professions such as farming, stone cutting sector, mining industry, and zari and embroidery works. Child labour is reportedly highest among Scheduled Tribes, Muslims, Schedule Castes and OBC children, despite aggressive reservation policies favouring this demographic.

Encouraging policy reform The NGO has fought against child labour through lobbying for reform and legislation-relating to state and national level governance to address child labour, abuse, corporal punishment, trafficking, and child rights violation. Through community volunteers, who spread awareness about education. Other legislative victories include the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act, 1986, which was strengthened with the NGO's intervention.

Creating awareness The NGOs directly interacts with the vulnerable communities, driving home the importance of children staying away from any form of labour. They bring awareness on various laws and punishments relating to violation of laws.

Freeing children through grassroots missions . Along with a lasting dialogue with vulnerable communities, the NGO has made outreach to state and national level governance to address child trafficking, including working with Police departments of states with child trafficking incidence like Punjab, , Bihar, J&K, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Assam.

Preventing exploitation during disaster After the natural disaster like- floods ,earthquakes affected millions of lives they provided a massive rapid relief response by channelizing relief funds to reach thousands of households with hygiene kits, household kits, education kits, and solar lamps, and raised funds for shelter, food Baskets, Child-Friendly Spaces (CFS) and more. The NGO has also undertaken surveys of Child labour across different demographics, creating grounds for local policy change, as well as setting up contact and activity centres across the city to give children access to play areas and vocational training. The NGO regularly creates safe spaces and provisions education supplies to enable children to continue with their schooling after disasters, and safe from traffickers who prey on their vulnerability.

NGOs IN INDIA DEALING WITH CHILD LABOUR:

1. Child Rights And You (CRY) One of the leading and most well-known organisations, CRY has worked since the 1970s towards the eradication of child labour. Based on the motto that each of us can be a small instrument of change, you can donate, volunteer, and work for them towards the cause.

2. Foundation Ms. Jeroo Billimoria was a professor at TISS when on an experimental basis the CHILDLINE was initiated by the Department of Family and Child Welfare there. But as the calls started pouring in from various parts of , she realised she was on to something. Today, it's a nationwide helpline for children in distress. You can contribute via cash towards different aspects of child welfare and even volunteer to work for their cause.

3. Save The Children India Started in 2008 and registered as Bal Rakhsa Bharat, the institution strives towards policy making in collaboration with Indian and international government bodies to improve health and education systems. The funds received by the organisation are used to get children out of child labour, child marriage, child pregnancies, abuse and emergency situations.

4. SOS Childen's Villages, India Working with abandoned children and orphans, this institution tries to bring children under a protected umbrella. Child's particular needs like clothes or a particular extracurricular activity, and a progress are taken care.

5. Bachpan Bachao Andolan An example of grass root movements, Bachpan Bachao Andolan has been the aid of 83,500 victims. Established in 1980, the organisation works towards rescuing and rehabilitating children who've been subjected to trafficking and child labour.

6. Uday Foundation There are various ways to react to tragedy. When a baby boy was born to Tullika and Rahul, they wanted the world for him but their hands were tied as the child was born with multiple congenital defects. But the resolve was to make sure no other child goes through the same, which is why healthcare is the main prerogative of the Uday Foundation.

7. Education Foundation Pratham believes in addressing the root cause of child labour - lack of quality education. It works towards ensuring that higher levels of education are available to those who cannot afford it and they use outcome-oriented methods and not rote learning - which is the practice in the most high-end educational institutions of the country.

NGOs like Save the Children are strategizing meticulous projects to address this issue. IKEA Foundation

Conclusion Disruption in schooling and lack of parental care creates an environment where child trafficking and subsequent enrollment into labour grows rampant, which means NGO's intervention cannot be undermined. India’s urban poor children, deprived of education often find themselves trapped in substance abuse or victims of abuse and exploitation. NGOs and civil society has vowed to unite and end child labour,